A new beginning...

deeahr2169

Some years ago I discovered Daz studio. Back then I was younger and not very patient and as usual I simply charged ahead and the result is that today I have some ability in using DS but that it is hampered by the fact that the way I have set it all up is very much a mash up. Then I was trawling tutorials and I found one on installing DS and DIM and so on the correct way by the WP Guru and while I have yet to finish it I was impressed and thought maybe I could set up DS in the right way and be able to use things like smart content and the install manager.

So i have all this content I purchased from Daz and time and would like to wipe the Daz studio slate clean and begin again, the right way. 

Question is where do I start?

Answers Please...

Elliandra

Good Morning!
I'd start with installing DS, then DIM and then install your content through DIM.
When installing through DIM you can put all your stuff in one location OR you can split it up into different folders for different product types or vendors.
In DIM if you go to the Cog in the top right corner and click on the Advanced Settings option then the Installation Tab you can tell DIM where to install your files, this comes in really handy when you have lots of products and having everything loaded slows down your computer.
An example would be:
1. Characters/Morphs/Poses/Anatomy
2. Clothing/Accessories
3. Hair
4. Environments and Props
5. Lights and Shaders
that way you only load what you need into the content library in DS and it's quicker to load stuff with less drag on your system resources.
Hope this helps you!
Elli

deeahr2169

Thank for the advice. Thing that confuses me is that I have DS already installed vers 4.14.0.10 pro and all my content is also installed.  So if I simply install DS again I assume it will dlete the version I have first before installing a new version. The new version however will contain all the content from the old one, at least thats my understanding, and all the bad stuff I have done over the years and just left to fester. SO what I saw on the tutorial was that I should install Dim first and then use DIM to install DS, whats your take on that please...

Elliandra

I would definately install DIM for DS Install and content management it will allow you to install your newer products and updates as well. All you have to do is point the DIM install product location on the advanced tab I mentioned above to your current content location and when it pops up a box like "You have content installed here that wasn't installed by DIM" just hit yes/accept to keep it there and any new files will overwrite the old ones, HOWEVER if there are additional bad files or removed files in the product updates DIM wont' remove those as it doesn't read them as being files that it installed. Does that make sense?

TBH though since you are coming back after a while I would honestly start with a clean install as a lot has changed with DS and the way content is handled right down to the file types used with the installs.

deeahr2169

Thank you so much. Actually I may not have put things very well but what I actually wanted to do was a totally clean install so that I could correct any mistakes ( well some of them, I am not a very good housekeeper LOL ) and was looking for confirmation. So to be sure am I correct in saying that If I use DIM to actually install DS then I will have a clean install of DS and that my purchased content from DAZ can then be installed as I wish using DIM.

 

Elliandra

I would first uninstall DS and Content, install DIM and then re-install DS and your content this will save you a ton of hassle in the long run. This will also hopefully ensure you don't have duplicate files filling up your system.

deeahr2169

Again my sincere thanks for your advice. Right now I have the time to do this and so, once I can uncross my fingers for long enough, i will get going and uninstall DS and then use DS to reinstall. I will comeback and report on what happens....

Deep breath....

deeahr2169

All the info I can find seems to indicate that to properly uninstall DS and DIM this should be done through DIM. Unfortunately I have installed Daz Central which replaced DIM and I cannot find an uninstaller anywhere. So I seem to be stuck before I begin...

lindans

You can still download DIM and start again

 

deeahr2169

It may be appropriate to mention that I am using an ancient but still relativley well behaved Imac 27" with an SSD drive...

 

So to begin with I couldnt find any uninstallers to remove DS from my machine, so I put everything I could think of into the trash and deleted that. Seemed to do the trick and as I had already deleted DIM in favour of Daz central, I thought I was okay to go ahead. So using DC I installed DS 10.15 and opened the thing up. First off there was this notification and the second one which I havent had to deal with since some years back when I first got this notice. So I just delted the notices and DS seems to work fine regardless.  However all my mistakes from past years are still present in this new version of DS which I wanted to avoid. The whole purpose of this exercise is to obtain a clean version of DS in which smart content will work along with all the other bells and whistles that have been added over the years. The content from other places and content that I have installed by hand myself was going to be backed up and loaded in at a later date.

Question is that there seems no means to download DIM any longer because DC has replaced it and the advice I recieved suggested I install DS and then DIM and then use DIM to install my content. I dont think this is possible but I may well be wrong, can this be done and if so how? 

Elliandra

IMHO DC is very limited in what it can do compared to DIM. I would uninstall DC and then go into your account and under product listing type in "Install Manager" in the search bar this will let you download an exe version of DIM to get you started going again.
As for the PostGreSQL issue there is a postgresql installer via DIM after you have installed DIM if you need it.
Elli

zombietaggerung

Here's a link to download DIM https://www.daz3d.com/install-manager-info/, i had to google for it.

deeahr2169

Well I have to say a big thank you. I installed DIM thanks to the link from zombietaggerung, worked just fine and installed DS. Its ended up in a folder called applications in my main apps folder as has DIM but in a seperate folder named Applications, no idea why or if putting both in one folder will cause a problem so best leave as is for the moment. Now I have to do some work installing content and making sure its where I want it to be....

I will probably be back asking for help before this exercise is over so dont go away please...

And of course my sincere thanks

deeahr2169

Just started to load content using DIM and have found my first problem. As an example some content comes with a number of different parts, most obvious one is materials. I dont think this is a universal thing but it may be, because when I load lets say an item of clothing, the actual item is sent to the appropriate folder, however the materials are sent to the materials folder for the type of content. So lets say something like BAST for V4 this consists of folders for the dress and for the hair and folders for the mats for both of these items, sent to different locations. If left it makes loading content onto a figure a nightmare. Hope that makes sense, its difficult to actually set it out simply.

This problem was what caused me to begin loading content manually way back, and has led to the confusion on my content folders. I say confusion, but for the most part I manage to stumble along, though it would be nice to just load content with DIM and have done with it.

Richard Haseltine

deeahr2169 said:

Just started to load content using DIM and have found my first problem. As an example some content comes with a number of different parts, most obvious one is materials. I dont think this is a universal thing but it may be, because when I load lets say an item of clothing, the actual item is sent to the appropriate folder, however the materials are sent to the materials folder for the type of content. So lets say something like BAST for V4 this consists of folders for the dress and for the hair and folders for the mats for both of these items, sent to different locations. If left it makes loading content onto a figure a nightmare. Hope that makes sense, its difficult to actually set it out simply.

This problem was what caused me to begin loading content manually way back, and has led to the confusion on my content folders. I say confusion, but for the most part I manage to stumble along, though it would be nice to just load content with DIM and have done with it.

That's true of Poser format content, native Daz Studio content geenrally places materials in a subfolder of the actual models' folder.

deeahr2169

Well thanks for confirming that and for perhaps offering some hope that it isnt all doom and gloom. I need to load some DS content to confirm this for my own peace of mind. Having said that sutrely there must be a way to load V4 content, which is what I understand to be Poser content without this mess...

Thanks for your input by the way...